Ex-Sonics star proposes a big new arena

But 'Downtown's' $1 billion plan is short on specifics

This is an artist's rendering of what the Emerald City Center would look like.

This is an artist's rendering of what the Emerald City Center would look like.

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This is an artist's rendering of what the Emerald City Center would look like.

This is an artist's rendering of what the Emerald City Center would look like.

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Ex-Sonics star proposes a big new arena

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Fred Brown knows he's got some aggressive selling to do on this one, but the former Sonics star who helped bring an NBA championship to Seattle in 1979 has never shied from an opportunity to take the offensive.

"Sometimes you've got to take your shot," the man known as "Downtown" Freddy Brown said Tuesday after unveiling a sketchy plan to save pro basketball in Seattle with a $1 billion privately financed sports and exposition complex.

The duo talked of building a retractable-roof arena that could house basketball and hockey franchises in the middle of an Epcot-like exposition center.

They mentioned five potential sites, including the controversial notion of using the Pier 46 area on the water west of Qwest and Safeco fields, land they'd need to lease from a very unreceptive Port of Seattle.

Also suggested were areas at Seattle Center, as well as three undisclosed Sodo district locations near the existing downtown sports stadiums.

Even fuzzier were details of who would finance a project, estimated at $1 billion to $1.2 billion by Bean, who said it's "easier to find private investors for $1 billion right now than to get $75 million out of the state Legislature."

Brown and Bean, partners in a consulting firm called B2, acknowledged it won't be an easy sell to a skeptical public and declined to reveal potential investors. But they also noted that it's clear the Clay Bennett-owned Sonics will soon be leaving Seattle and they believe their project will be necessary to attract a replacement franchise to a city Brown calls his own.

"Two words," said Bean. " 'Big' and 'vision.' "

Brown, who retired from his job as a Bank of America finance executive 18 months ago, said his effort isn't meant to compete with anyone else's, but clearly it throws another hurdle into the city's effort to find public funding for the final $75 million of a proposed $300 million KeyArena renovation.

Matt Griffin, a Seattle developer working with Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer and two other prominent businessmen on the KeyArena project, said the interjection of another arena proposal will "make life more complicated" as his group awaits matching funding solutions from the city or state for the $150 million in private money they offered to contribute.

"Otherwise there's not enough there for me to really comment on," Griffin said. "There's no financing plan, there's no site other than some they don't own. There are no teams and they need multiple teams to make it work."

Mayor Greg Nickels responded with a statement expressing appreciation for the group's efforts to solve the Sonics situation, but made it clear his focus remains on a KeyArena solution.

"Today's proposal is a very long-range vision," Nickels said. "However, for the foreseeable future Pier 46 will remain one of our most active container facilities. KeyArena is our region's sports and entertainment facility."

Charla Skaggs, spokeswoman for the Port of Seattle, said port officials had never heard of the idea until Tuesday morning's news conference and noted the Pier 46 property is leased though 2015 to Hanjin Shipping, a South Korean company that has the option of extending that lease through 2025.

"We're not going to build the sports arena at Pier 46," Port of Seattle Chief Executive Tay Yoshitani said. "It is not a good idea. I went through a similar situation at the Port of Oakland, and it didn't work out, and I see the same kinds of problems here."

Though Bean talked about relocating port workers to different terminals, Yoshitani noted there aren't many options for such waterfront property and environmental costs would also be considerable.

"While a terminal is all surface, to build a stadium you need to go underground and dig up stuff in an industrial area," Yoshitani said. "They have no idea how much that is going to cost."

Public access to the site would also be an issue, with Yoshitani noting that the Pier 46 area is blocked on various sides by water, the football and baseball stadiums and railroad tracks.

Brown and Bean said they're not committed to the Pier 46 site, which they knew would raise questions when they labeled it their "ideal location." Brown said his group should have contacted port officials before trotting out their plan.

"We put a lot of emphasis on the port location (in their presentation), but we are not here to offend anyone," Brown said. "I know there will be naysayers out there. But this is a plan we have that we believe will work for this community."

Bean has been involved in smaller sports projects in the past, having worked as president and general manager of the Tacoma Rainiers minor league baseball club in 1995 and vice president of the Seattle Smashers pro volleyball club in 1978-79. He and Brown also had some involvement with marketing the Goodwill Games in Seattle in 1990.

Tuesday's presentation was a leap into some very deep waters, with Bean talking about a project whose scope would double Bennett's unsuccessful proposal for a $500 million multipurpose arena in Renton.

The new proposal centers strictly on private financing, however, with the two principals suggesting investors could easily be lured into backing a financially viable development that would put a new face on Seattle's downtown waterfront.

Bean said the complex would attract partners such as Microsoft and Boeing, who could build exposition centers to promote their businesses and would surround a sports facility capable of hosting outdoor concerts and shows under a unique slide-away roof.

Bean said both pro hockey and basketball tenants would be necessary to produce the needed revenue, but Brown insisted the plan could be scaled back if that wasn't possible.

A news release issued by the group said they would submit expansion applications to both the NBA and NHL and quoted Brown as saying, "In reality, the Sonics are gone and quite frankly we do not want to be part of an effort to relocate an existing team to Seattle."

But during the news conference, Brown said: "We're not (just) talking expansion teams. I want to be clear about that because I don't know what the other owners are going to say about expanding."

NBA Commissioner David Stern recently said expansion is not a high priority for his league and the NHL has never seriously considered Seattle since Barry Ackerley's renovation of KeyArena in 1994 eliminated the possibility of that building hosting major league hockey.

Bean and Brown began talking about their idea last summer, but waited to see if other plans gained traction first. They wanted to go public now before the upcoming NBA Board of Governors meeting in mid-April to let the league know there are other viable arena projects in Seattle, even though they admit their own effort isn't aimed at stopping Bennett from relocating his team to Oklahoma.

A spokesman for Bennett said his group had no comment.

NBA legend Bill Russell, a Mercer Island resident who helped Bennett lobby state legislators for the Renton arena, attended Tuesday's news conference as a longtime friend of Brown and supporter of keeping pro basketball in the area, but is not involved with the project, according to Bean.

Brown said he has spoken to the NBA, but said those conversations were private. NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league didn't know enough about the new proposal to comment.

"Our assumption is that this team known as the Sonics is gone," Bean said. "We wanted to let the Board of Governors know there's another group interested in trying to conform to the standards the league has mandated for the facility. That's why we're here today. We need to let people know Seattle does want a team."